Cauda Pavonis The Peacock’s Companion
by AkaVertigo
Summary: Drabble and babble describing a Victorian-esque AU where magic bends, manners matter, and Zuko still can’t brew a decent pot of tea. Zutara
1. Prologue: Conjurors of an Age

**_Conjurors of an Age: Great Magicians of the Vitriolum Era_**

by Prof. Zei. Head of Anthropology Department, Ba Sing Se University

**-X-**

...but the question that captivates poets and academics, kings and errand boys, lawyers and alewives, is this: what makes a **_great_ **magician? Power and training seem small-minded answers, their elucidation curt and indistinct.

By its very definition, magic is a contradiction; it not only creates the impossible, it **_is_** the impossible.

Is magic to be deemed a servant of the Mind or a hostage of the Heart? Is passion a restorative or a poison to its workings? Each magician had a theory, every college a philosophy...each argument inspired its own opposite...an issue both private and peculiar...

Perhaps the best example of the era's conflicting mindsets lies in the remarkable relationship that existed between the time's most notorious opposites...

* * *

_"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."_ **pledge motto on Prince Zuko's journeyman badge**

From the moment he was born, Prince Zuko had no place to hide—nor truly belong.

...'Prince' being the closest available translation of his real title, though the family no longer owned a throne. (For more information consult Bishop Roku's _Sozin's Winter; Decline and Fall of the Ember Empire_.)

...arrived in the city at the age fourteen, emigrating for unexplained circumstances...

...his renowned uncle, the retired General Iroh, an Elemental Master of prominence...

Though educated at the magical institutions of his homeland, he was nonetheless obligated to pass the local Qualification Examination to earn the badge of apprentice; it was presumed he'd have little trouble passing the test.

Prince Zuko adamantly refused the offer...

...spending a year under his uncle's private tutelage...

...end of the year, he approached the Council of Five for permission to undertake the auxiliary examination (ironically nicknamed "trial by fire") which required him to construct and present a wholly original conjuration...

He succeeded and was granted permission to apprentice.

* * *

_"Cum grano salis."_ **pledge motto on Miss Katara's journeyman badge**

.  
..a captain's daughter...

...a storm...suspected piracy...Captain Hakoda willed his assets to be evenly split between brother and sister in an unconventional gesture of egalitarianism...

...St. Marine Board School...healer schooling...

...during the winter Miss Katara turned fourteen, her brother used the majority of his inheritance to bring her back to the city and procure a magical preparatory curriculum for the girl. That he was able to do so is no small testament to the young man's ingenuity, and powers of persuasion...

...a female Master both licensed and recognized was a rarity...a sensation...an anomaly...

...present female talents with alternate options, such as healing...seldom giving any encouragement to pursue certified Mastery...

Allegedly the tribal sea kingdoms, where Water magic is most frequent, hold no such prejudice on gender...Miss Katara's own early conflict with her Master, a transplanted river native, belies the claim...Dr. Pakku made no secret of his original reluctance to undertake a female pupil, let alone accept one as an apprentice...

...equally open about admitting that Miss Katara was the most distinguished student ever to come under his care...

She requested the auxiliary exam...twice refused...the official, and generally suspect, reason stated being her young age...The Council of Five finally allowed the examination...

She succeeded and was granted permission to apprentice.

**-X-**

It is impossible to say exactly what beget the rivalry.

The Council of Five had a longtime history of being tightfisted about granting licenses, especially to foreign residents. Competition was always fierce among peers...Prince Zuko and Miss Katara rated on a level higher than the rest of their set...they had to endure much heavier scrutiny due to "exceptional" potential...

Rumor speculated that only one apprentice would receive journeyman authorization...

...promoting two high level magicians would make it impossible to moderate their performance as new Masters...the city's resources were still recovering in the Great War's aftermath...

...hard to say how much truth these rumors held, both apprentices felt the pressure of hearsay...

...each raised the bar for the other, the result being an ongoing private contest...

* * *

**...the Masters...**

Dr. Pakku and General Iroh long enjoyed an unconventional friendship...a strange liaison considering the two had initially fought on opposite sides during the Great War.

...venerable scholars...highly sought after as teachers...

...neither of the men had plans to accept the demanding task and responsibility of training an apprentice, let alone mentor one through the journeyman period...yet both found themselves doing exactly that...acquiring their charges within mere months of each other...

...the Winter Solstice Ball...all licensed magicians required to attend...both Masters attended with a young guest, each who they introduced as their private student...

...no record, however, that the young people ever made each other's acquaintance...

* * *

Generally, one believes that the main aim of a tactile spell is to forestall or to be ahead of the opponent. Among contests of the same Element a valid needs only to be delivered a fraction of a second earlier; among matches of different, let alone opposing Elements, forestalling takes more subtle form. Here forestalling is expressed not only through speed of conjuration, but by the necessity for careful and acute perception. Plainly speaking, the magician must be a thought ahead of his, or her, opponent. It is by this principle that the pair built their rivalry.

Prince Zuko presented a new parry tactic...within a week, Miss Katara had the answering riposte to match it...her attack was displaced with his _froissement_...his augmented _tierce_ defense was arrested by her _coup d'arrêt_...a Fire _neuvieme_ versus a Water _passé_...

...always there remained a distance between them...a strange war, when overt foes never share a battlefield...

It was a mercilessly civil clash of ingenuity, craft, and absolute obstinacy.

...no quarter asked, none given...

**-X-**

...the time of apprenticeship drew to a close...Society, and the rest of the city, readied for the storm...fireworks and torrents...snow and ash...

Nobody could've predicted what actually occurred.

* * *

**  
Author's Note (of Apology):** Hi, Vertigo here.

Having read the above (or at least skimmed over the shorter bits) you probably have some questions. Like, is Bending magic? Vitriolum whatchamacallit what now? Or, when is this happening? Also: what the hell's up with all the ellipses?

Well…

**-X-**

_"It's not magic. It's waterbending."_ –**The Boy in the Iceberg**

…but what if it was both?

CP is a collaboration between the inimitable Irrel and the inexcusable I cooked up over a series of silly emails and boring work hours. The project was—and still isn't—meant to be anything other than an exercise in folly. Irrel wanted to try drawing Zutara in something involving a longer hemline and neater hair (seriously, Zuzu, buy a comb). I wanted to play with magic water and Victorian dialogue. Of such desires is madness born.

While actual full-length stories/chapters are possible (and tentatively planned) they will not be featured here, in this collection. Rather _The Peacock's Companion_ will house various drabbles and odds describing the CP universe and the Zutara relationship within. Don't be fooled by the lengthy appetizer above; the things you'll read here will be significantly shorter.

Illustration pertaining to CP can be found either at Irrel's deviantART site or at the CP Livejournal community. Addresses for both can be found in my profile. Go check out the graphics because they're definitely the niftiest thing about this lunacy.

The point is, fillies and gents, once upon a time two people (who happened to be bored) made up some stuff about two other people (who happened to be fictional) and decided to share it with whatever other people happened to be into that sort of crazy thing.

Thus bibbidi bobbidi boo...


	2. Katara's Diary: It takes

**Katara's Diary -- "It takes..."**

_ad augusta per angusta_

**-X-**

What does it take to make a magician?

Fortitude, Master Pakku would say (and often does, mulish old iceberg he is). Imagination is Master Iroh's gentler recipe. A profound lack of sense has always been my brother's opinion. Zuko has his own speculations, I'm sure—just as I am sure of my _**not**_ wanting to hear them. But the truth is greatly less poetic.

It takes money.

It takes money to obtain a workroom, to outfit it with the necessary paraphernalia, to put oil in a beaker and ash on the grate. It takes money to buy copies of the proper inscrutable ancient texts and transformations of their impenetrable contents. It takes money to procure a seat in a freezing lecture hall or, colder yet, the damask and velvet cocoon of some great Dame's respectable saloon.

(A simile occurs: the process is like a posh dinner. There are courses to pass, a copious amount of utensils for the most minor tasks, and nothing worthy is said to be achieved without proper company to enjoy—and approve—your efforts.)

That is what it takes to make a proper magician in our day and age, and no amount of sentiment can will otherwise.

And while money perhaps isn't the reigning difference between my and Zuko's trials as magicians, it is an insolubly heavy mark in the tally. Whatever pet grievance Prince Zuko's temper entertains, the fact remains that by being born wealthy he entered the world with the irrevocable opportunity to be what Nature made him.

I wasn't.

**-X-**

* * *

**AN:** There's a bloody _fantastic_ little drawing of Katara accompanying this ditty, and if I were you, matey, I'd go track it down over on Irrel's dA or the CP LJ.


	3. Zuko's Diary: Back home

**Zuko's Diary -- "Back home..."**

_non serviam_

**-X-**

How has it come to this?

In the Fire Nation magic is a privilege, a venerable discipline to respect, a sanctified prerogative. Here—it's business. It's fancy sport. It's an exercise in gossip. It's a petty exchange between a magician and Society, as if they were a maid and a fishmonger quibbling over a hunk of salmon! A spell to keep champagne fizzy in the punchbowl is thought an accomplishment!

However pitiable the modern condition of the Empire, at least its citizens still know to respect magical ability as a sacred legacy. But in this land—in this city—there is no pride, no heritage, no honor among magicians let alone ordinary men. What can be said of such a people? To call them hopeless is woefully optimistic, for it implies there was once, however insubstantial, the specter of hope rolling through the gutter. One can only hope the murder of dignity was mercifully quick while the local paws rifled through its pockets for amusement, for these people haven't the withal to offer better. That my uncle finds comfort in their order is a mystery and an insult.

Had I a fiber of sensation to spare I would fear this city, fear and abhor the perverse alchemy of its grime and air, its traffic and bells, its stinking crowds and busted wares, its lead mornings and useless dark, its walls.

As it is I can only hate my place in it.

**-X-**

* * *

**AN:** Guess who concocted _that_ trick? As with the previous there's an illustration for this piece.

Fun Fact #27: The CP version of the Fire Nation (sometimes referred to by its outdated label of Ember Empire) is somewhat based on a major Western empire that existed during the early 18th and 20th century. Can you guess which one, dear reader?


End file.
